--- title: President Trump Calls Reality Winner Sentence 'Unfair' description: President Trump said sentence handed down to Reality Winner was “unfair,” and also hit out at Attorney General Jeff Sessions. canonical: https://time.com/5377202/donald-trump-reality-winner-sentence-unfair/ author: Billy Perrigo article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-08-24T12:19:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T21:14:57.288Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Calls Reality Winner Sentence 'Unfair' og:description: He used the assertion about the NSA whistleblower to attack Attorney General Jeff Sessions again og:url: https://time.com/5377202/donald-trump-reality-winner-sentence-unfair/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3cdc1369dc43e253/6989389a929fad39abbf1679/gettyimages-693907654.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4177 og:image:height: 2350 og:image:alt: Intelligence Industry Contractor Reality Winner Accused Of Leaking NSA Documents Pleads Not Guilty og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Calls Reality Winner Sentence 'Unfair' twitter:description: He used the assertion about the NSA whistleblower to attack Attorney General Jeff Sessions again twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3cdc1369dc43e253/6989389a929fad39abbf1679/gettyimages-693907654.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Calls 5-Year Prison Sentence for NSA Whistleblower Reality Winner 'Unfair' > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Billy Perrigo](https://time.com/author/billy-perrigo/)  ## Billy Perrigo Correspondent Aug 24, 2018 12:19 PM UTC  JUNE 8: Reality Winner exits the Augusta Courthouse June 8, 2017 in Augusta, Georgia. Winner is an intelligence industry contractor accused of leaking National Security Agency (NSA) documents. JUNE 8: Reality Winner exits the Augusta Courthouse June 8, 2017 in Augusta, Georgia. Winner is an intelligence industry contractor accused of leaking National Security Agency (NSA) documents. Sean Rayford—Getty Images  by [Billy Perrigo](https://time.com/author/billy-perrigo/)  ## Billy Perrigo Correspondent Aug 24, 2018 12:19 PM UTC President Donald Trump said NSA whistleblower [Reality Winner](http://time.com/4806582/reality-winner-contractor-leaks-media/)‘s [five-year prison sentence](http://time.com/5376375/reality-winner-sentence-5-years-leaking/) for leaking a classified document to the media was “unfair” – and he used the assertion to again attack Attorney General Jeff Sessions. In a Friday morning tweet, Trump called Winner’s leaks “‘small potatoes’ compared to what Hillary Clinton did,” referring to his repeated accusations that his rival in the 2016 election had broken the law in her use of a private [email server](http://time.com/4820708/donald-trump-russia-investigation-hillary-clinton-obstruction/) while Secretary of State. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1032948187416416256) The tweet also marks the second time in two days that Trump has [lashed out at Sessions](http://time.com/5376538/jeff-sessions-trump-fox-interview/), following remarks he made Wednesday saying his Attorney General “never took control of the Justice Department.” “So unfair Jeff, Double Standard,” Trump wrote Friday. The attacks on Sessions come directly after Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty and implicated the President in campaign financing crimes. Winner, an ex-NSA contractor, leaked classified government information to a news organization in 2017\. That news organization was never officially identified in court proceedings, however on the same day Winner was arrested the investigative site The Intercept released a report detailing a Russian attempt to influence voting in the 2016 election. Trump’s apparent support for Winner is contrary to his insistence that Edward Snowden, another former NSA employee who leaked secret information to the media, is a “traitor.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5377202/donald-trump-reality-winner-sentence-unfair/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5377202/donald-trump-reality-winner-sentence-unfair/"},"headline":"President Trump Calls 5-Year Prison Sentence for NSA Whistleblower Reality Winner 'Unfair'","datePublished":"2018-08-24T12:19:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T21:14:57.288Z","description":"He used the assertion about the NSA whistleblower to attack Attorney General Jeff Sessions again","url":"https://time.com/5377202/donald-trump-reality-winner-sentence-unfair/","keywords":["Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3cdc1369dc43e253/6989389a929fad39abbf1679/gettyimages-693907654.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Billy Perrigo","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/billy-perrigo/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3cdc1369dc43e253/6989389a929fad39abbf1679/gettyimages-693907654.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Intelligence Industry Contractor Reality Winner Accused Of Leaking NSA Documents Pleads Not Guilty","caption":"Intelligence Industry Contractor Reality Winner Accused Of Leaking NSA Documents Pleads Not Guilty","creditText":"Sean Rayford—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5377202/donald-trump-reality-winner-sentence-unfair/","name":"President Trump Calls 5-Year Prison Sentence for NSA Whistleblower Reality Winner 'Unfair'"}}]}] ```